Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn - DVD
Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn - Part 1
Author Stephenie Meyer keeps plugging those Mormon "teachable moments" in this dismal continuation of the soft soap melodrama series which, like its vampire hero, refuses to die. With the glow of the franchise considerably on the wane director Bill Condon performs mercenary by-the-book helming duties. Condon’s efforts do little to energize the material's "afterschool special" television trappings. No matter how ordained-by-marriage their union might be, human Bella and vampire Edward evidently have no business getting conjugal together. That's the overriding message that arrives when the sleep-inducing drama surrounding the lovers' big moment of pent-up sexual release finally comes around. In keeping with the franchise’s former installments the CGI werewolves still look like crap, and the romance is still oh so tortured even as the actors shed all resemblance to the teenage culture to which the films are pitched. In the context of America's continued puritanical obsession with sexual repression, the "Twilight" movies come across as so much Kool-aid propaganda. Now that Bella is giving birth to an evil spawn, she's bound to regret not using birth control on her wedding night. Psych.
Rated PG-13. 117 mins. Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn - Part 1
February 15, 2012 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Red River - Classic Film Pick
The homosexual subtext in Howard Hawkes's 1948 western is a widely overlooked, yet unmistakable element, to one of the most popular examples of the genre. Significant too in the narrative, about the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, is one man's entitled sense of capitalist greed that blinds him to all ethical consideration.
John Wayne plays the film's would-be protagonist Tom Dunson. Dunson abandons a wagon train to head south into Texas with a plan to steal as much land and cattle as he can. Not even the unbridled love of a beautiful woman can stand in his way. Dunson's abandonment seals her doomed fate. With his trusted wagon driver and cook Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), the pair adopt an approval-starved boy named Matt Garth--the sole survivor of an Indian attack. Cut to 14-years later when Montgomery Clift's film debut casts him as the grown version of Matt who Dunson has mentored.
Dunson thinks nothing of stealing another man's land. If he's caught he kills the rightful owner with a snide smile on his face. Wayne's anti-hero builds his herd by re-branding thousands of cows belonging to other ranchers with his Red River "D." One lucky rival is a hotshot cowboy named Cherry Valance (John Ireland). Cherry inserts himself on the big cattle drive after his boss inexplicably forgives Dunson's poaching.
The similarly aged Matt and Cherry engage in a bonding ritual. They briefly trade pistols as a matter of introduction. Shooting at a tin can that jumps through the air allows for shared compliments. Cherry comments, "You know, there are only two things more beautiful than a good gun. A Swiss watch, or a woman from anywhere. You ever had a Swiss watch?" The innuendo-riddled line hangs over the story. We're told "there's gonna be trouble" between Cherry and Matt, but the dramatist's forewarning never comes to fruition. The deliberate statement lofts a query about what kind of "trouble" the author imagines, or expects the audience to imagine, for the two cowboys.
After his protégé takes the herd away from his increasingly volatile father-figure, Dunson promises to "kill" Matt. Dunson's brutal threat ushers in the cunning romantic affection of Tess Millay (Joanne Dru). Matt rescues Tess from an Indian attack after leaving Duson behind. Tess seizes the opportunity Matt she loves him at first sight. And yet Tess changes her romantic stripes when she soon after promises Dunson to bear his child during their first meeting. Tess's loudly voiced pronouncement of the "love" between Matt and Dunson resolves the drama.
July 29, 2011 in Western | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Episode #180 of the Unpretentious Movie Review Show for Smart People
July 12, 2011 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
My Beautiful Laundrette - Classic Film Pick
July 4, 2011 in Film | Permalink
The Man Who Fell to Earth
June 24, 2011 in Sci-Fi | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Camille Claudel - Classic Film Pick
June 17, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Diner - Classic Film Pick
June 10, 2011 in Film | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Classic Cinema: Went the Day Well?
May 28, 2011 | Permalink
Tales of Terror
May 16, 2011 in Horror | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Classic Cinema: The Rules of the Game
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